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Colloidal Transfer Printing–Mediated Fabrication of Zinc Oxide Nanorods for Self‐Cleaning Applications
Author(s) -
Banik Meneka,
Chakrabarty Poulomi,
Das Anuja,
Ray Samit K.,
Mukherjee Rabibrata
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced materials interfaces
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.671
H-Index - 65
ISSN - 2196-7350
DOI - 10.1002/admi.201900063
Subject(s) - materials science , nanorod , colloid , chemical engineering , monolayer , fabrication , layer (electronics) , substrate (aquarium) , nanotechnology , polystyrene , contact angle , zinc , thin film , spin coating , composite material , polymer , metallurgy , oceanography , geology , engineering , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
Fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces with extremely low contact angle hysteresis (θ CAH < 4°), which exhibits excellent self‐cleaning behavior by colloidal template–guided hydrothermal growth of zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs), is reported. A hexagonal close packed monolayer of polystyrene (PS) colloids is first deposited by spin coating on a thin poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) film. Subsequently, the colloidal array is transferred to a substrate precoated with sputtered zinc oxide seed layer by UV‐Ozone (UVO) mediated colloidal transfer printing. ZnO NRs are grown with colloids of different diameter ( d D ) varying between 300 and 800 nm, and for each d D the growth time ( t G ) is optimized to obtain maximum level of hydrophobicity. These experiments show that best self‐cleaning property is achieved with colloids having d D = 600 nm and t G = 4 h, which do not require any subsequent low surface energy coating. Using transfer printing allows uniform coverage of the monolayer colloidal array over the sputtered seed layer spanning over large areas, irrespective of the roughness or curvature of the target substrate.